Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles using a freshwater green alga, Prasiola crispa

Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles has been achieved via reduction of an aqueous chloroauric acid solution with dried biomass of a freshwater epilithic green alga, Prasiola crispa, collected from a high altitude river ecosystem in Arunachal Pradesh state, India. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by UV-visible, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), FT-IR, and DLS studies. The UV-visible spectrum of the synthesized gold nanoparticles showed a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) around 535 nm after 12 h. The powder XRD pattern furnished evidence for the formation of face-centered cubic structure of gold having average crystallite size 9.8 nm. The TEM images showed the nanoparticles to be nearly spherical in shape with sizes in the range of 5-25 nm. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.